by Autumn Kushner
Rowdy and Redass
Go It Alone
With a month until summer, many often find themselves in a predicament. This time of year, with the blossoming flowers, the much-needed sun, and the loads of school work barring you from finally getting that color back in your skin, marks a time of uncertainty and change. Many of us are restless, peering into the ambiguous future with hope and a little fear at what the break, just over the horizon, may bring. For those not graduating and not taking courses, summer brings elation. Without the constant nagging of tests and papers, we are once again able to focus on the meaningful parts of life.
Through March and April, friendships are neglected due to the pressing deadlines and the packing involved for early May move outs. People with leases are frantically trying to find ways out of them by either pawning them off on those staying over the summer or making up outlandish reasons that the lease is void in the first place. “Hey Mr. Landlord, I’ve decided the 20 pound rat living in my closet is your responsibility and therefore you must be a signatory on my lease as well. Good. Well, now that there is someone else on the lease, I’m moving out and they are paying it. So long!” Now, it would seem the friendships can finally be brought back into the forefront of the priority list. Sadly, often this is not the case. Friends graduate, friends move home, and when the release from the stress finally comes, sometimes it comes too late. But with this revelation comes the question: what is more important, your goals that you have been working toward, or the friends who make it all worthwhile?
For each person the answer is different. Most people contrary to what we know we should do, have been spending so much time in social settings that they cannot function and study to the best of our abilities when the onslaught of loneliness hits when night after night is spent alone. However, there comes a point in everyone person’s life when they realize that though friends are innately important, friendships have the potential to be finite and they will fade and if you do not get your goals on track now, there will be nothing left when others have taken the time alone that you have not.
The key to this time of year is focus. Focusing on the right choices that will ultimately make you healthier and better off is a difficult thing to do. One of the reasons that so few people make it to the top is that most people choose the value of friendship over furthering their goals. This is not a bad choice but realize what you are giving up by choosing this path.
The break is around the corner and though you may miss out on hanging out and though you might kick and scream and cry when you are alone night after night, know that sometimes when you make the decision to take some time to go it alone, you may be able to obtain your goals, pick up with your friends, and have everything that you would be constantly struggling to maintain if you hadn’t taken the time.